Post 464 - The last 2020 Blog Post for 2022.

Just in time for Christmas, the Summer solstice and the anniversary of my mother's birthday on 21 December, the descendant of the tree begonia we inherited when we bought a house in Gawler in 1973 flowered on my balcony. I regard it as a blessing and reminder of both continuity and change. Maybe because of my mother's birthday, I have thought a lot this week about family no longer with us and how much they gave me and future generations.

They have been uplifting and sustaining memories this week.  

I had a lovely Christmas Day with my Adelaide family. Many thanks for all the hard work that went into making it so enjoyable. I have a fabulous new plant on my balcony and I am learning to use my circle maker.   I feel a lot of pinwheels coming on in 2023! 

In the lead up to Christmas I was kept busy connecting with friends and family as well as preparations. I love the news that flows in at this time from friends and family, some of whom are in contact through social media, some not.  It is a priority to stay in touch and catch up, by phone, email, card, ecard or visit - to maintain the community to which my whole life belongs. I'm still adjusting my response to the variety of Christmas media - but reckon I can keep evolving my practices.        

I finished off the 30 Christmas gift bags I started last week - a bit more than I originally intended, but a very enjoyable job jobbed  The whole process is in my embroidery blog. The bags were a big success and will be reused for years to come. They are not much use outside Christmas, but that just makes them special. 

My other project was to finish 11 of the Shetland Wool Week Bonnie Isle Hats to go with the Christmas crackers. They too were well received and several people continued to wear them through the afternoon. Again, details and photos of all the hats in my embroidery blog. Consensus is they be put away for next year.                                                                                                                                                                                       I've moved on to knitting a baby's cardigan requested by Christine Bishop for the Guild gift shop. 

In Adelaide it was 32C on Christmas Day, 39C on Boxing Day and 40C today - an extraordinary contrast to the weather being experienced by friends and family in the UK and USA. It's also dry, in contrast to the South Australian Murraylands and Riverland where 4000 homes are being inundated by floodwaters and evacuees swelter in temporary accommodation. 

I have not ventured out (or online) for the sales, or for anything else, except watering my plants. I bought half a leg of ham and plenty of salad. Tomorrow's forecast is 24C, so I will replenish eggs and tomatoes once Simon the technician for our entry system has called to answer my questions. 

This is the Boxing Day moon setting over Adelaide. It may  be the last I can capture this year. 

Hope 2023 dawns peacefully - and brings relief to those in peril.

Post 411 To safety, sanity and solicitousness in 2022.

Last Wednesday I dashed into the city to pick up the brooch that has been with the repairer for several weeks and was finally finished. It belonged to my grandmother and is not a glamorous or expensive piece. The sparkly stones they have used do not resemble the original, which were, from memory, plastic beads in a range of primary colours. It was, however, the only option - and I rather think my grandmother would have liked it. 

The interest lies in the brooch coming apart to form two clips, 

which can be used on the corners of a square-necked dress to hold undergarments out of sight.

I don't know that I will ever use it, but I really like the concept. My grandmother had very little jewellery and am pleased to have it in working order.

This was the view down King William St, in the centre of Adelaide towards the Christmas tree in Victoria Square as I returned home. The Town Hall is on the left and the GPO clocktower on the right.

I posted last week on the anniversary of my mother's birthday. On the day my brother visited our parent's grave to place frangipani blooms from one of the successors of the tree she nurtured for 40 years. The magnolia tree on their grave has grown in the last year and is looking healthy. I'm glad he went. 

There was a flurry of noisy activity in the street in front of the building next door in the last few days before Christmas - what looked to be the extension of the NBN cabling underground and repairs to the road. It was finished and the road block removed on Christmas Eve. This is now the view from my balcony.

At street level the footpath is still blocked but the road is open and parking has, for the moment at least, improved significantly.

From across the Square the view is not too bad. 

Closer up the new buildings loom a bit, but it is, admittedly, a reasonable streetscape.

The sunset on Christmas Eve was truly glorious - I would not have been at all surprised to see angels.

It prefigured a lovely Christmas Day- calls with my brother and with Alison, most of the day at Katherine and Anthony's, relaxed, delicious food outside, amazing presents, great company.

I have a treasure trove of presents, a really lovely bird brooch, charming, vibrant earrings, a needle-keep, fabric to play with, a calendar of wonderful bird photos, a pouch of hand cream and an antique box for needle packets.

There might be more about some of these in later posts.

The public holiday's following Christmas Day have been very quiet. We have Omicron circulating in the community and  tightening restrictions. Friends are isolating and booked for tests tomorrow because they are  contacts of someone who has tested positive. Family work contacts and friends are also awaiting results. 

I've stayed home catching up on reading, embroidery and several friends and family. It's been really lovely to have long emails, phone calls and cards from so many friends and family who have taken the time to catch up.  This is a very important part of the year for me - the maintenance and strengthening of the web of connections spun over a lifetime, across circumstances, the country and the world.  I do my best to keep in touch throughout the year, but this fixed point ritual is so renewing and strengthening. Thank you to all who have participated.

There has been quite a bit of dove activity this week. I haven't manage to capture the four birds on camera, but they seem to be parents and their two offspring. Either the young birds are now muscling in on the parents' territory, or they are being taught the protocols of feeding. 

They arrive together and there is a lot of chasing around the seed and the ground space until they fly away, then one or two return. I'm sure this will end with only two birds visiting - but which generation it will be is not yet clear.

I took time out from the bag I've been working on to make this pouch for some scissors I had bought as a present. I have published details of this and other presents today in my embroidery blog. I could not write about them here without ruining the surprises.

The base of the Hearts and Roses Bag progresses.  It still has a central rose and a border to go, but I'm pleased with the progress. It is fairly slow work, much of it in a single strand of cotton, but very pleasurable. With a lot of incentive to stay at home I expect to make progress to the sides by next week - although there is the Guild Challenge to draw me away......

I've read some interesting books, watched the BBC's Road to Istanbul and Road to Rome series on pilgrimages and also the Sacred Isles of Scotland series. These are all helping to shape my thinking about historic embroidery. 

My weight loss continues slowly but steadily, 17.6 kg down as of this morning. 

Until next year.

Post 300 The Eyes Have It

I spent a couple of hours this morning working on the flower using the food natural light in my bedroom chair. At least three times I thought I had finished and took a photo only to find an area where coverage wasn’t total. That’s the trouble/advantage of taking photos in good light, it shows up every flaw. 

I’m now happy with the result.

Both Black Tips and Turtle showed up for seed. Black Tips came first, had a feed then took off. Several minutes later Turtle arrived.                                                                            Did Black Tips tip him off? That’s how it appeared,

I had my optometrist appointment at 2pm. My prescription was significantly changed last year, and seems to be working well, but I had a couple of issues to discuss, most importantly, my left eye gets bloodshot and weepy after I’ve read or stitched for an hour or so. This has been happening to a greater or lesser extent since February when I saw a GP about it before I left for England. All the COVID drama rather pushed it from my mind, except that I kept using the eye wash my doctor suggested. 

As I expected, my sight is pretty much the same as last year. The left eye issue is caused by damage to the layer of fluid over the skin, basically caused by dryness. I now have three things to do - cream to apply before sleep, drops to apply first thing in the morning and four more times during the day, and a wet heat pad to apply twice a day.  I realise that this were pretty much the recommendation from my GP in February, Travel, then COVID and lockdown, drove the detail out of my mind. I now have a specific eye mask and an appointment in two weeks time to make sure I follow instructions. I’m pretty relieved to have advice and a plan and have used the drops and mask this evening.

 

I also ordered an additional pair of glasses with a graded lens set for a computer screen - plus a clip on 3x magnifier for counted thread embroidery.  This is a bit of an indulgence, especially since I chose an expensive frame. I expect, however, to be able to use these for embroidery as well as for reading and writing. I probably won’t get them until I get back from Normanville. 

I had a long conversation with my Sydney friend Pat. She’s had a cold on and off for a couple of months, and several COVID tests, all negative. It’s frustrating her. She has also urged me to have a check up with an ophthalmologist. 

As we talked the sun moved into my Western balcony and lit up the poinsettia. I haven't put up Christmas decorations this year, apart from the bunting on my Western balcony rail and my wise men, who have lived on my curtain since last year. There is also, of course, my tiny fir tree.

Unexpectedly, the postman delivered a parcel this morning that I was not expecting until next week.. four garments from Taking Shape, two day tops, one PJ top and one pair of jeans. The jeans were the unknown  but are miraculously, a perfect fit. 

I’ve been working another crochet square because it doesn’t strain my eyes. I have been gradually undoing the squares I first did, assuming US terminology was intended in the pattern. I've been waiting to see how consistent my squares now are before I undo the old ones. Also, of course, I had a vague idea I could make something else from them. Because the old squares used more cotton I could get two circles out of one old external layer, hence the two white circles.

I had lamb cutlets and salad for dinner, treating myself to eating from the bowl with the  celadon-like glaze made and given to me by my friend Robin in the Blue Mountains. Delicious.l did finish two squares without much eye strain.           

I've been keeping an eye out but so far haven't seen any either reindeer or six white boomers pulling a sleigh through the sky, but of course my eye is not the best. I think it's time I put that cream in it and took myself off to bed. There is indeed something wonderful about Christmas Eve.